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Gus Schumacher, a 23-year-old from Alaska, won the men’s 10km freestyle race Sunday at Theodore Wirth Park, making him the first American man to win a World Cup distance event since 1983. became.
The race featured a staggered start, with skiers departing every 30 seconds. Schumacher started 35th out of 76 riders and finished in 20 minutes 52.7 seconds. Then he waited.
All of the Norwegian players, who are leaders in the World Cup standings, were still on the track. One car at a time, Schumacher remained at the top of the leaderboard.
Harald Østberg Amundsen, the overall points leader, was also at the top of the distance standings, but was only second in the race, taking first place with a time of 20:57.1. He was followed by Saturday’s sprint champion Johannes Hessfrot Kraevo with a time of 2:59.02. The last skier to worry about Paul Golberg, who started 70th. He finished third in 2:58.5.
The stadium was filled with chants of “USA! USA!” Schumacher shed tears in his post-race interview.
“Today was the best day ever…Thank you, Minneapolis!” he said.
This weekend’s race in Minneapolis marked the first World Cup event to be held in the United States in 23 years. And entering the weekend, hopes for an American champion in any of the four races rested heavily on Afton native Jessie Diggins, who leads the Women’s World Cup standings.
Diggins will compete in her signature event, the women’s 10k, on Sunday afternoon.Scheduled to start at 1:14 p.m.
After Schumacher crossed the finish line, he was guided to the finish line chair reserved for leaders. He said he had only been in that seat for 15 or 30 seconds in previous races. Because someone came faster than usual.
“I saw my time keep going up and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I just skated a crazy race,'” he said. “I never imagined anything like this would happen today. I always try to do my best, but most of the time my best is not on the podium.”
Schumacher entered the race in 22nd place in the overall World Cup standings and 18th in the distance events. His best career result before Sunday was a fourth-place finish in the freestyle sprint race at the 2023-24 Tour de Ski.
It was a great World Cup season for the American men, who finished on the podium twice. This is the first time since 1983 that two American men’s players have finished on the World Cup podium in the same season.
In December, 23-year-old California native JC Schoonmaker became the first American man to reach the World Cup podium since 2017 when he placed third in the sprint race in Ostersund, Sweden. A few weeks later, 24-year-old Ben Ogden won. -An old man from Vermont who took third place in the Tour de Ski sprint race.
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